


mandatory undercover mission

by nausicaa_of_phaeacia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Dancing, Drinking, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Jealous Coulson, Mack is a genius, Mack is the best Director, Prompt Fic, Tropes, Undercover, skoulsonfest2k16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 21:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5758687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nausicaa_of_phaeacia/pseuds/nausicaa_of_phaeacia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I swear it made sense in my head. -</p>
<p>Two months after the whole Maveth story, she sometimes finds herself thinking they don’t even need a psychiatrist around the team anymore. Not that they don’t miss Andrew (he’s disappeared from their lives completely and Daisy can’t help wondering every so often where he ended up, and then she looks at May and knows they need to find out rather sooner than later), but the job Mack is doing is pretty much ticking all the boxes of what psychiatrists usually do: they listen to you telling them weird things, then nod until you come up with a possible solution, but also give advice in case your own idea doesn’t work out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	mandatory undercover mission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Skyepilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/gifts).



> My first skoulsonfest2k16 prompt fic -  
> obviously for the [MANDATORY UNDERCOVER PROMPT] (Day 2).  
> Hope you like :) it's a little silly!

Two months after the whole Maveth story, she sometimes finds herself thinking they don’t even need a psychiatrist around the team anymore. Not that they don’t miss Andrew (he’s disappeared from their lives completely and Daisy can’t help wondering every so often where he ended up, and then she looks at May and knows they need to find out rather sooner than later), but the job Mack is doing is pretty much ticking all the boxes of what psychiatrists usually do: they listen to you telling them weird things, then nod until you come up with a possible solution, but also give advice in case your own idea doesn’t work out.

To be honest, it’s not so much advice as simple orders sometimes. And the pro side of Mack not being the team psychiatrist but the Director is that he won’t file reports about what you do or don’t dream at night. And there are such things as helpful conversations not led inside offices or interrogation rooms; sometimes they also take place next to two glasses of beer or a video game or morning coffee and don’t surpass a word count of 100 words. Still: all of this feels better than repeatedly telling your average shrink that you think your dreams mean that you always had that vague fear of being left alone.

Three months after the whole Maveth story, she finds herself counting the days since Coulson last smiled, and they are a lot (and laughing so hard at a stupid sitcom that you dropped your popcorn during the only time you actually didn’t spend your whole time inside your bunk because it was someone’s birthday doesn’t count). She notices Jemma trying to trick him into a smirk, but all it earns her are really, really lopsided grins, with your clichéd sad eyes on the side. „At least he’s trying,“ that’s what Jemma keeps saying, but she’s patient like that. Daisy’s not patient. But her jokes don’t seem to fall on fertile ground lately. Coulson must think she’s become a total idiot ever since he’s honouring the team with his totally introvert and pretty grumpy presence again. 

To be honest, if you didn’t know he was at the base, you wouldn’t know sometimes. He’s sticking to desk work and negotiations; it’s not that he’s not excelling at those things (because he is), but it does seem to keep him inside this sort of glass bubble he’s been in ever since his return from outer space. Sometimes Daisy wonders if anything except May’s hug right after they came back ever really got through to him. Admittedly, she’s even tried to lure him back into being his old self by buying him expensive Brazilian coffee beans, fair trade and rich in sunshine or whatever, but that only got her a shoulder touch. Of course she also appreciates the shoulder touch (actually, too much, Lincoln tells her, and that’s how dumps him one Friday; not really the reason _why_ he dumps him, but whatever that reason may be, it feels like he deserves it, and she’s never felt so good during break-up ice cream before), because Coulson shoulder touches have been rare lately, but it’s not the same. It’s like he’s there but careful not to exit some kind of trap he’s deliberately locked himself into.

When it’s New Year’s Eve and Coulson is actually literally spending midnight inside his bunk, Daisy loses her chill. Joey always tells the recruits that _Daisy Johnson_ is the queen of cool, the queen of chill, and the queen of quakes, but she doesn’t think it’s true. Granted, she’s got more chill than certain other members of the team, present members not excluded, but what’s enough is enough. 

So on January 2nd, she stomps into Mack’s office, tells him he needs to make Coulson put himself back together because she’s unable to work with him lingering around the base like the mere ghost of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s best agent. Mack just looks up in time to see his latte vibrate in spirals as the door bangs shut after her. He sighs, but it’s not without a smile. The next morning, he writes her a note.  
„Tremors,  
You’re on. Mandatory undercover mission with Coulson. No taking back. You know I could have done this earlier, but up to just recently, you didn’t look like you were that eager to change partners. Or also, partners. What do I know. You know.  
Sincerely,  
Yours Truly (see also: ‚ex-partner‘)“  
She can’t help laughing at Mack’s cheap pun. And impeccable handwriting.

She actually almost drops her bag when Coulson shows up, two cups of coffee, sunglasses.  
„Morning, AC,“ she chirps, instantly biting her lip when she hears herself. But he doesn’t seem to mind that much.  
„Mack tells me I’m your standard mid-life crisis guy showing off my much-too-young fiancé at this dump’s finest restaurant.“  
„Uh, did he – did he really say that?“  
„Yeah, why? You’d rather team up with ... someone else?“  
„Nah, that’s cool. _Haute cuisine_ and table reservations with Phil Coulson, should be fun.“ Secretly, she sends a thank-you prayer to Mack. Grinning. Strategy plan received, thank you very much, loud and clear, over and out.

Things go quite okay at the restaurant, at least during the apéritif and during antipasti, even. She has to admit this convention of changing wines every course is taking its toll on her a little. For example, she can’t tell if he’s actually smirking a little sometimes, at least when she’s telling him half-funny stories about one or the other adventurous (translating to: bordering on illegal) teenage night she’s had, sneaking out of the orphanage. Better be sure, she tells herself, and that’s how she ends up teasing Coulson not-so-subtly for every even remotely gentlemanly thing he does (or doesn’t do, but those are rare). 

Even though he’s keeping a very nice facial expression, she can tell he’s actually pretty annoyed with her by the time they get to the cheese. Like she’s so exhausting and cheeky. But she’s doing it for a good cause, she swears. That’s what Mack’s plan has to be, right? Make Coulson jealous by insinuating that he’s not exactly the man a girl like you would be with. Spin around every manly thing he does by making him feel like there might be someone out there doing it better than he does. Because being a gentleman is what he prides himself with the most, right?

He’s actually half-glaring at her during dessert, and she’s not quite sure if he’s about to jump at her and shake her around by her shoulders or crash his lips upon hers. Must be the, what, at least four – what, five, counting the champagne apéritif! – glasses of wine she’s had. To be fair, though, he doesn’t seem to be able to tell if her eyes are telling him to get lost or get over here, either. Or maybe that’s just her imagination, who knows. When she’s done with her tiramisù and not-so-secretly gazing at the awesome jazz trio on stage, he more or less just grabs her by the hand and leads her to the dance floor. 

Her shoes are a little to high-heeled to be swirled around like that safely, but Coulson doesn’t seem to care – he _does_ catch her after every single twirl, though, and Daisy’s getting the hang of it really soon. When the musicians take up a slower dance number again, she’s surprised at actually having to catch her breath for a second after this dizzying intermezzo things turned out to be. Coulson’s not even sweating. Before he can point out her red cheeks (she’s sure they are red, they have to be with all the alcohol and ... charm), she attacks. „Did you enjoy showing me off?“  
The smirk has quite some bitterness to it. „Every gentleman does; did you, though? Would you have preferred different company?“  
She’s praying Mack’s hearing this, although she’s pretty sure comms are off, because come on, this is a next-to-fake mission after all: taking pictures of some HYDRA sympathiser’s goons because they look like maybe their muscles have been enhanced. Plus, said goons have been gone ever since the fish and white wine. Blowing that one goddamn strand of hair out of her face, she tries to assess if she’s teased Coulson enough to make him behave more like himself again. Then she smiles, noticing something tiny and a little fearful in his eyes.

„Present company‘s perfect. What I need, though, is a drink. I mean, look at my Sleeping Beauty cheeks.“ And that, that finally makes him laugh, you know, laugh with all those tiny wrinkles around his eyes that Daisy’s missed so much. Seeing him like this makes her remember why she’s gotten so annoyed at him not being around more. He offers her his elbow and they make their way over to the bar. She orders a ridiculously large and colourful drink (because that’s something everyone wants to try at least once) and finally, they joke their way through it without Daisy ever having to wonder how much of it is real. Coulson’s indulging himself a little too well as far as Scotch on the Rocks is concerned, but in the end, it’s him who has to help her high heels down the short flight of stairs from the bar into the hotel’s lobby and pull her card through the golden doorknob thing. 

She’s not quite sure why they booked this double room, but then she remembers Coulson telling her they’ve both had a little too enough to drink to show up at the base like this. „At least you got those photos of that guy’s bodyguards.“  
„What photos?,“ Daisy asks, all innocence, until she remembers that that’s actually what Mack told Coulson to make him go on a mission with her. Before she can try and explain anything, though, she sees Coulson smirk, knowing it’s okay that she just said that out aloud.  
„You knew all along?“  
She just nods, and even though everything is a little too colourful and far too nice right now, she can see Coulson’s back, Phil’s back to being himself, and that he’s very much about to kiss her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Please tell me what you think :)


End file.
